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Show A PROFITABLE PUBLIC FOREST. Pleasure Grounds Which Pay Annually Ij,r8" Sums Into a City Treasury. The Sihi-Wald has been owned by Zurich ever since 1309 at least, and has been carefully administered for centuries. centu-ries. It is now managed on the most approved ap-proved scientific principles by a corps of trained foresters and a permanent work- ing force so well organized that important import-ant work is successfully executed by common laborers under the supervision of a forester of the lowest grade. Economy Econ-omy as strict and watchful as that of any private enterprise prevails, together with a wise and open handed liberality in providing for the welfare of the property. prop-erty. One year the net profits were something over $8 an acre, or a total of : about $20,000 for the city treasury. The city does the entire work lumbering, lum-bering, manufacturing and administra-' administra-' tion. It employs the best modern labor saving devices, such as lumber slides, portable railways and a railway to the ; mills. In the saw mill the principal machinery is American, and in its facto-i facto-i ries the forest management works up the product into a great variety of marketa- ble material, and also manufactures : nearly everything it uses. An elaborate I and costly apparatus has been success-I success-I fully introduced for injecting wood with a solution of copper sulphate under hy-I hy-I drostatio pressure, making its products I last twice or three times as long as ordinary or-dinary wood, so that there is a wide de-mand de-mand for the telegraph poles, railway ; ties, wooden pavement, shingles and i other articles treated in this way. j The net profits of the forest will be I largely increased by a new railway build-' build-' ing into the valley. Almost half the annual yield of wood is from thinnings alone. The proportion of firewood is I generally 74 per cent., yielding 64 per cent, of the total revenue, j In this economio treatment of the for-I for-I est its value as a pleasure ground is not j forgotten. The management maintains ! throughout the domain a network of well kept roads and paths, with occa- sional benches along them, while it aims i to preserve the landscape unharmed and make . the place thoroughly and pleasantly pleas-antly accessible. Boston Herald. |